Privacy not Prism

An overwhelming response to Privacy not PRISM's £20,000 fundraising has meant their target has been hit after just two days of fundraising.

The fund will pay the legal costs of taking the UK government to Strasbourg.

The action is being taken by Big Brother Watch, Open Rights Group, English PEN and Internet campaigner Constanze Kurz, who want to challenge the UK government's surveillance of our data at the European Court of Human Rights.

The revelations that the government routinely taps, stores and sifts through our Internet data have demonstrated an astonishing lack of legal protection for our rights – above all, the right to privacy. This doesn't just affect UK citizens: most of the EU's external internet traffic is routed through the UK.

Jim Killock, Executive Director of the Open Rights Group:

"The response has been overwhelming. It shows that there is overwhelming concern about these revelations, both in the UK and beyond.

"This busts the myth that the UK is unconcerned. While Parliament has failed to debate these issues, the public are personally prepared to donate money from their own pockets to ensure their rights are protected, and the governments' secret surveillance schemes are held to account.”